Page 39 - May 9th News Today

Your view? >> russia is determined to keep pressing the offensive. they want to take over all of donbas and secure that land corridor connecting crimea, donbas to russia and want to do it by may 9th so putin can claim that achieved something big in ukraine. not what they set out to do but theyre determined to do it. there have been easter truces before. since 2014 russia has been fighting against ukraine there and they have had truces like this. the fact that they arent doing it now shows on the...

Almost two months. it does not seem this is playing out according to the russian plan, is it? >> very, very much so. certainly at the present time, i think that president putins casting around for some way to scrape together some form of victory here. around may 9th, he will just declare victory, if you like, at that victory day march and try for a cease-fire around that particular time. so the offensive at the moment, hes aiming to capture as much ground as possible and then once having capture...

Marginal. >> at this point, with the offensive already under way, you would have assumed that they have all their ducks in a row before beginning this offensive, that there would be no need to add such significant manpower at this point of the game. >> it would seem this is a sudden rush. russia hasnt prepared very well for this offensive from a military viewpoint. they seem to be driven by the vth victory day on may 9th. it seems president putin wants a victory of some kind on that day. already...

Doing prudent things and managing escalation. >> reporter: the question now, will the u.s. resume testing its own intercontinental ballistic missiles? barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. well, russia is already flying a flag of victory over parts of ukraine, but its the soviet victory flag from world war ii which has been seen in parts of occupied areas. this comes ahead of the may 9th deadline, which is russias world war ii victory day, and a date which this year putin is hoping to declare some...

They stay there without having to come out at some point and surrender. but it appears they want to go down fighting and they may well do that. >> and it appears that vladimir putin wants to announce publicly of a major win, leading up to not only the eastern orthodox easter this sunday, but obviously the may 9th victory day parade in russia. what does the win look like in terms of what we have seen leveled upon mariupol itself, the city that used to have 400,000 residents has just been leveled....

Children, women, and families that were torn apart, and besieged in that city of mariupol without electricity, without much water, food, the situation for them was extremely dire. and i know youre going to go talk to them now and get more details on their harrowing experience. hopefully this is a sign of whats to come and we can get more civilians out of that city. tanya, thank you so much for your time and your reporting. >> my pleasure. well, russia is tartstartin plant its flag across ukrai...

With the apparatus of the election should be going on right now. i havent seen any intelligence, but it has to be going on. the last day before the election is dark in france but theres still 48 hours to go, and macron is not a natural campaigner. i hope the spread is as wide as everyone is saying but i dont know that. if le pen should somehow win, she wants to pull out of the eu. she is vladimir putins friend. it is a catastrophe. thats one thing i am worried about. the other thing, may 9th is ...

Ukrainian forces, surround them, and get them to surrender. i think this is going to be a very, very hard fought campaign, and i think if we can continue to equip the ukrainian forces with the arms and munitions and so forth that they need, and im sure, again, 800 million more dollars is very, very substantial, if we can get that in their hands and do it quickly enough, they may even start to counter attack, as they already are out of kharkiv. so, again, i dont think goesing to have something ex...

Him for his word but we will watch his actions and watch the actions of russia, and we will continue to hold them accountable for the actions. >> do you think it could have something to do, is it a possibility, you know, as the council is looking, security council is looking for this that has something to do with the may 9th celebration, why he would come out to say this? >> look, i dont know. i will say they have, you know, from the beginning of this wanted to have victories and been unable to ...

Victory, whether its the may 9th deadline or not, he needs something he can sell to the russian people as a victory. he does not have that yet. >> right now in mariupol, about 1,000 civilians are holed up in a sprawling steel and ironworks. heres one mother talking about what conditions are like right now. here she is. >> translator: im with my three children, and conditions are not the best here. theres no way to study, not much food, and my kids teeth are starting to spoil. >> also in that fac...